Thoughtful Thursday: DNF-ing Books

Thoughtful Thursday
It is time for Thoughtful Thursday and the bookish questions that pop up while I am reading. Please share your thoughts on the bookish question of the week. I am curious to hear what you have to say! There are no wrong answers. Questions about Thoughtful Thursday or future Thoughtful Thursday posts? Check out my Thoughtful Thursday section. Alright, on to the question!


Do you DNF (do not finish) books? Do you call it that or do you call it something else? Do you tell people when you DNF a book or do you act like you never read it at all? How have your DNF habits changed over the years?

I have gone on a little journey over the years with DNF-ing books. Up until a few years ago, I never formally DNF-ed a book. If I wasn't loving a book, I would "put it on the back burner." This meant that theoretically, I would one day return to the book. I had not given up on the book, I just wanted to let it simmer a bit before I returned to it. A perfect example of this is Half Magic by Edward Eager. I put this book on the back burner for years. One day, I picked this book back up and finished it. If I recall, I didn't even start from the beginning, I started where I had last placed my bookmark. When I think back to the books I had as a child/teenager. I think I ended up finishing every book I started. The key word in that sentence is started, I definitely bought a lot of books and never read them.

This "back burner" technique is one I still employ today. I think it is because my tastes are fickle, and sometimes I need to take a break from the binge SF&F reading that I'm prone to do (*cough* epic, high fantasy *cough*) and read something completely different (*cough* Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh *cough*). A few months ago, however, I officially DNF-ed my first book. I did this for a couple of reasons. (1) Now that I share my reading for the entire Internet to see (hello Internet!), I feel like I need to be a bit more honest about my reading. I want to be transparent about what I'm reading so you know what books will ultimately get reviewed on my blog. (2) This particular book was an ARC, and I didn't want it sitting in my NetGalley reading list for several years (and bringing down my feedback-to-approval ratio) while I worked up the motivation to read it. (3) I knew deep down inside that I didn't want to read this book and if I pushed myself to read it, I would have just gotten very angry with it.

I found the decision to DNF the book to be very liberating. I deleted it off my Kindle, and I picked up a new book. I felt so free and happy. I think the reason that I had never DNF-ed a book before was that the number of books that I had was fairly limited. After I left elementary school, I didn't have access to Troll or Scholastic catalogs, and I was at a loss of what to read. I would get books from the library or the few nearby bookstores, but I was overwhelmed and unsure what to read. What this meant was that I didn't have a lot of books to read, so I read the books that I owned, whether I enjoyed them or not. Now that I have you guys, GoodReads, the Internet, Amazon, and good libraries, I have more options. I don't need to read a book I don't like, because I can pick up something else instead.

Now it is your turn! Do you DNF books? Do you call it that or do you call it something else? Do you tell people when you DNF a book or do you act like you never read it at all? How have your DNF habits changed over the years?





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